Israeli Students Show Alarming Deficiencies in Math, Science, and English

New internal draft reports from Israel's National Authority for Measurement and Evaluation in Education (RA"M) reveal a deeply concerning picture of student performance, echoing recent poor results on the international PISA exam. The RA"M data, which has not yet been officially validated, indicates that only 3% of ninth graders fully met the curriculum standards in science and technology. An additional 16% were close to meeting the standard, while a staggering 81% fell significantly short.

In elementary schools, the situation is also dire. For sixth graders, fewer than 40% met the required proficiency levels in mathematics, and a similar percentage achieved the standard in English. The data also highlighted a significant challenge for Arab students, with only 20% of sixth graders in the Arab education system fully mastering Hebrew, indicating substantial language acquisition difficulties at an early age.

The release of these draft findings follows a period of intense internal conflict, particularly concerning Education Minister Yoav Kisch's attempts to limit the publication of the "MITZ"B" (national assessment) results in science. Kisch had previously dismissed some of these metrics as "garbage data" and accused RA"M officials of illegal data leaks and political campaigning.

While Kisch and his supporters have attributed the poor performance to the impact of the ongoing security situation and the war, arguing that reforms will take time to show results, education system insiders point to a systemic crisis. They cite the PISA results, which showed a significant drop for Israel in reading, math, and science, alongside reports of severe teacher shortages, as evidence that the current crisis extends beyond immediate security concerns.